Kolles denies involvement in Campos rescue

Former Force India team principal Colin Kolles has refused to confirm that he is part of a possible ‘rescue’ attempt at Campos Meta, despite sources close to Dallara confirming that he is among several contenders trying to get involved. Kolles would not admit to being party to any negotiations over Campos.

“I have no contract or anything,” he told this blog on Thursday morning. “I know for whom I’m working, for what I’m working and why I’m doing it. People seem to be all of a sudden interested in me. To be honest with you, maybe you know more than I know.

“Let’s see what is going to happen. I do a lot of things, I try to help some people in whatever way. But I’m not Mr Teixeira, saying I’m buying this or that or taking over, because this is not the case.”

When I asked if he’d already booked his ticket to Bahrain, Kolles said: “A clear answer, no. But you can book it quite quickly…”

The Spanish media has reported that Kolles has joined forces with original Campos Meta investor Jose Ramon Carabante to ensure that the team doesn’t collapse, and has reported that – with Adrian Campos presumably out of the picture – the team will be renamed. However suggestions that there is a future connection with Volkswagen would seem to have come from cloud cuckoo land. And speaking of cuckoos buying Sauber might be a more logical route for the German manufacturer should it ever get off the fence…

Interestingly Kolles does have connections with Dallara, because the Italian company was contracted to design a car for Midland. He is also friendly with Campos, who was an occasional visitor to Silverstone when Kolles was in charge of the former Jordan team.

Kolles has focussed on his Audi Le Mans and DTM programmes since he left his role at Force India, although he turned up in the paddock at Abu Dhabi last year and made it clear that he had unfinished business in F1.